Epilepsy has nothing to do with mental disease or retardation. This has been proved beyond all doubt by the "epileptic geniuses", people who achieved great things in spite of suffering from epilepsy.

The following selection shows people who had epileptic seizures at a certain stage in their life or who suffered from a chronic form of epilepsy for many years.

The fact that hardly any women are to be found among the "famous epileptics" is not because statistically fewer women suffer from epilepsy than men (48 to 52), but can be explained by the social conditions prevalent in past eras.

It was infinitely more difficult for women to become prominent figures than it was for men, thus it was deemed more interesting to pass on accounts of the life and deeds of men than to record the less spectacular achievements of women.

Research done on the information available about the 'famous people with epilepsy' who are usually listed in literature on the subject has shown that some of them definitely did suffer from epilepsy (e.g. Caesar, Grand Duke Karl, Pope Pius IX., Flaubert, Dostoyevsky). Other people (e.g. King Saul, Napoleon, van Gogh, St. Paul) are suspected of having had epilepsy, but research cannot prove this definitively.
It is clear that some famous people (e.g. Lord Byron, Nobel) did not have a chronic form of epilepsy but temporarily suffered epileptic seizures at certain periods in their lives.

The interest shown in famous people who had epilepsy once again makes it clear that people with the chronic disease epilepsy or who suffer occasional epileptic seizures can still be highly intelligent and achieve great things.

It is now a well-known fact that individual grand mal seizures do not destroy nerve cells and that even several grand mal seizures (as long as they do not cause the patient to fall into an epileptic status or occur in a series) have no negative effects on the patient's intelligence.

Patients and their relatives often ask whether seizures will cause any lasting brain damage, and their fears are not always assuaged by their doctor.

It is therefore useful if the epileptologist who treats such patients not only reassures people with examples from his or her own experience but can also point to the 'famous people with epilepsy'.